2016 JRA Cup Betting Odds: Two Share Favouritism

Two stayers in Friday night’s JRA Cup 2016 clash at Moonee Valley are currently sharing top spot in betting for the Moir StakesNight Group 3 showdown.

Real Love is a top chance even under top kilos on Friday night according to the latest 2016 JRA Cup betting markets for Moonee Valley. Photo: Daniel Costello.

The Darren Weir-trained top weight Real Love (58kg) and the imported Tom Melbourne (55kg) are both paying $4.40 through Ladbrokes.com.au in the latest markets for this year’s $200,000 Group 3 JRA Cup (2040m).

During the Brisbane Winter Racing Carnival former Perth Cup winning mare Real Love won the Queensland edition of the JRA Cup as well as the Group 3 Premier’s Cup (2200m) at Doomben Racecourse before a Brisbane Cup fourth over the mile and a half.

This season the six-year-old daughter of Desert King has had two runs.

The first was at Moonee Valley when a nice second as a $31 roughie behind Awesome Rock in the Group 2 Dato’ Tan Chin Nam Stakes (1600m) over the mile.

Last start she raced at Caulfield on September 17 but only managed to run seventh to Jameka in the Group 3 Naturalism Stakes (2000m).

She goes up a kilo from that run and is over the same distance with Brad Rawiller retaining the ride from a mid-field barrier five draw in the 11-starter JRA Cup, but the bookies are taking no chances with the class mare who should be peaking this run from the good draw.

The JRA Cup markets also show plenty of respect for the 2016 Cox Plate-nominated Tom Melbourne in barrier seven with Dwayne Dunn replacing Glen Boss in the saddle of the Dylan Thomas gelding.

Despite being a six-year-old, this stayer has had just the 10 career runs.

He boasts a 50% winning strike rate to date having won five of those, the latest victory being on a Heavy (10) in the Listed Albury Cup (2000m) back in March.

His last run was a sixth in the Naturalism Stakes and he is two-from-form over the distance, but his inconsistency is the negative for favourite backers in the JRA Cup.

Close second favourite at $5 for the win is Observational who Damien Oliver rides from barrier two on 55kg this Friday night.

Prepared by Robert Hickmott for goliath trainer Lloyd Williams, the Galileo six-year-old is another Naturalism Stakes graduate (9th) out to improve on his lead-up run.

Oliver replaces Ben Melham in the saddle and the change of hoops third-up could see a sharp improvement from last year’s Bendigo Golden Mile winner.

Rounding out the JRA Cup hopes under $10 in the current markets are the John O’Shea-trained Group 1 performer Arab Dawn ($8.50) second-up and getting over a more suitable distance and last year’s runner-up Magnapal ($9) drawn in barriers 10 and eight respectively.

See below for the full JRA Cup 2016 markets, betting odds now available at our No. 1 recommended bookmaker Ladbrokes.com.au who are matching the first deposits of new sign-ups (excluding NSW) dollar for dollar up to $500 in bonus bets with use of the code BETBONUS (T&Cs apply).